Blumenthal Comments Stir New Questions on Military Service

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sat down with a reporter for a local news outlet this week in an effort to move beyond an issue that has bedeviled his Senate campaign: his claims about his military service during the Vietnam War.

But the interview, with The Connecticut Mirror, a news Web site, raised more questions about that chapter in his life, as Mr. Blumenthal offered a version of events that was sometimes at odds with historians’ accounts of the period.

At one point in the interview, Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat, said he joined the Marine Corps Reserve in April 1970 knowing that reservists could be activated for service in Vietnam. “I did not want to avoid service,” he said. “I did realize reservists could be called up, and that it was something that I wanted to do.”

But military experts said there was no expectation that reserve units would be activated at the time Mr. Blumenthal enlisted, particularly given how drastically public opinion had turned against the war.

In fact, President Richard M. Nixon had begun in 1969 to reduce the American troop presence in Vietnam and transfer more responsibility for fighting to the South Vietnamese, said James E. Westheider, a history professor at the Clermont College campus of the University of Cincinnati who has written about Vietnam.

“By the time he was in the service, if he was in the Marine Reserves, he was not going to Vietnam,” Mr. Westheider said.

Mr. Blumenthal has faced criticism since The New York Times reported last month that he had falsely claimed he had served in Vietnam and that he had not corrected news reports that perpetuated the claim.

The Times article also described how Mr. Blumenthal was able to avoid going to Vietnam by obtaining five deferments and eventually enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve, considered a haven from the war.

On May 18, the day The Times published its article, Mr. Blumenthal held a news conference in which he expressed regret for what he called the “misplaced words” he used in describing his military record, then later issued a more forceful apology.

Photo

Richard Blumenthal gave an interview to a local Web site.Credit
George Ruhe for The New York Times

In the interview with The Connecticut Mirror this week, Mr. Blumenthal sought to play down the instances in which he inaccurately described his military service, saying it was a “very limited” number of occasions.

“Whatever the number, I regret the mistake,” he said.

Mr. Blumenthal, 64, has also in recent weeks sought to defend his record of service in the military.

Mr. Blumenthal, in the interview, said that he did not remember the number he got in the draft lottery but that it was probably high enough to keep him out of the draft, according to the article.

David Curry, a professor at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who is an expert on the Vietnam draft, said Mr. Blumenthal’s lottery number would have been cause for worry for someone who did not want to be drafted.

“I’d say he had a medium-level lottery number,” Mr. Curry said. “It’s not really a safe number. But once he joined the Reserves, he would not have been eligible for being drafted.”

Mr. Curry, who served in Vietnam, also questioned how anyone could forget his draft number. “I find it hard to believe that anyone would forget their lottery number,” he said. “I am betting if I call my colleagues who were in that same lottery,” he said, “every one of them would know their draft number.”

Marla Romash, a Blumenthal spokeswoman, defended the candidate’s comments. She said Mr. Blumenthal believed that as a reservist he could have been sent to Vietnam, but she declined to say what basis he had for that belief.

Ms. Romash also said that Mr. Blumenthal now believed, with the benefit of hindsight, that it would have been unlikely that his draft number would have been called, but she did not elaborate.

Recent polls show that Mr. Blumenthal holds a considerable lead over his likely Republican opponent, Linda McMahon, the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, suggesting he enjoys good will with Connecticut voters despite the controversy.

A version of this article appears in print on June 17, 2010, on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Blumenthal Comments Stir New Questions on Vietnam. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe